Here’s what I wrote before:
In the not-too-distant future we should get a more full-blown version of the Internet on TV. It will need to be a lot more “visual” than much of the Internet is today (more icons, images, video, etc.). But it will be a significant development when it finally happens (maybe as significant as mobile in a way).
And here’s today’s YouTube blog post about YouTube videos on TV (not new news but a reiteration):
YouTube has partnered directly with major TV and set-top box manufacturers to bring YouTube into the living room. Still, very few such devices today contain a Web browser or provide access to YouTube. Our hope is that this site may help to accelerate an industry evolution towards open television access to Web video. Over time, we plan to add support for additional TV devices that provide Web browsers.
Screenwerk 
January 16, 2009 at 2:19 pm
i agree that it is coming but it seems like it will be a very different experience. I view ‘todays’ internet as largely a ‘personal’ experience. When it hits a fixed location TV in my house, it will be a shared and maybe event interactive experience. This is fundamentally different.
January 16, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Yes, agree . . . going to write something about that Mark.
January 16, 2009 at 2:44 pm
This comes down to the end-user experience. Online, much of YouTube watching comes by way of referral, either through a blog, an e-mail, or a video aggregator. Some point and click through YouTube, but that experience may be less than ideal watching from a distance on your TV (certainly text searching for videos would not be a mainstream TV model immediately). For YouTube (or others) to be successful here, the interface has to blend the passive TV experience with the constant user interaction mold of the Web. I’ve been dissatisfied with YouTube’s channels, and generally rely on other sites for cataloging the videos effectively. They will need to vastly improve for it work on TV.
January 22, 2009 at 11:06 am
[…] search engine that offers video content instead of text — again in anticipation of “the Internet in the living room.” It’s already the second biggest search engine in the US after Google itself, in […]